ACO Meeting Minutes January 14, 2016

Minutes of the Arts Computing Department meeting held on January 14, 2016

Present:  D. Keenan, J. Simpson, K. McGowan, H. Balagtas, S. Speers, N. Bromley, S. Paterson, J. Schildroth, T. Marshall-Taylor, C. Wallace

Co-ops:   S. Schmidt, S. Lee, J. Asif

Regrets:  S. Hartung, L. Tomalty

  • Dawn
    • CTSC update
      • Engineering has put a new SSD-based file server into production.
      • CS is re-evaluating Mac management. They are currently using JAMF Casper along with Math; AHS and Environment are piloting SCCM; Arts using Munki.
      • IST absence management application is in final stages of security assessment before being made available for use in other areas.
      • Library VM infrastructure moved from IBM server to Nutanix.
      • UW userid name space recovery discussion: geometric growth due in large part to assigning userids to applicants, many of whom never matriculate. Expiration of unused userids could alleviate pressure on systems.
    • Arts will be undergoing an IT audit. We can expect to work to consultants from internal audit in February with additional work to follow.
  • Sarah
    • Organizing Surplus room: noticed only about half the ACO numbers are in the database and some older machines have old UW Asset tags. Plan to add 2 columns to database to track which machines are in which bins to better structure work.
    • Showing Sean L imaging process for PC and iMac.
    • Following up with Tickets from last term; some may be ongoing sabbaticals. Will check with department administrative staff on faculty member availability.
  • Sean L
    • Familiarizing myself with the imaging process and troubleshooting techniques.
    • Learning PHP/MySQL/CSS and other necessary languages for the project (CALMS).
    • There is now a clipboard in the surplus room is on the back of the door. Please use it to provide information when dropping off equipment.
  • Javairia
    • Working on web content on ACO site with Lisa.
    • Reviewing survival guide extensively and familiarizing myself with ACO.
    • Signed up for leadership training (Presentation Skills, Motivating Others).
    • Some goals: enhance skills in communication, time management, conflict management, and learn about WCMS.
    • Work with Lisa when time allows to write more processes and update older versions of client-facing documentation. For example, instructions to use Mailservices on Mailapp on Windows 10 are needed.
  • Keith
    • Removing old user documents from ECH lab systems to recover space. Care needed to remove only completed projects. Working towards automatic removal of these files.
    • New certificate for Artslab has been installed.
    • Created new Mac installers for most Xerox fleet printers.
    • Removed uPrint printer from Psychology due to low usage. The physical printer was moved down to PAS 1099 to give students a larger paper tray (print more pages before maintenance is needed).
    • Updated PPOCIR Wordpress site.
    • Researching Standard Operating Procedure documentation.
    • More surplussing of old servers as time permits.
    • SAF advancement staff temporarily in PAS have been connected to ACO printer.
    • Sociology printer (non-Xerox) failed. Have replaced with a similar model from the surplus room.
    • Shared mailboxes set up for artsheforshe and englaward. Putting together instructions for technical staff on how to do this.
    • Created course and workdir shares for FINE 228. Adam Glover teaching the course this term.
    • Patched Acrobat DC for Mac.
  • Herbert
    • Lori Curtis has been having some computer issues.
    • Setting up Surface Pro 4 for Olivia Mesta (ECON). Waiting on financial rules clarification to purchase Adobe Acrobat Pro. May go ahead with only Acrobat DC is there is no need to edit/create PDF forms.
    • OFAS - multiple file download feature added per SAF request.
    • Office Mac 2011 for Goetz Hoppe (ANTH) keeps crashing when trying to save documents. Installed Office 2016. Keith notes a few people have had issues with Word and was able to fix with Disk Utility repair. Office 2016 is available as an optional install through Munki.
    • Trying to figure out why DeployStudio keys created for new iMacs have not been working. May need to update the server.
  • Sean S
    • Cygnus backups were running out of space in December due to backup size. Re-configured to exclude Thunderbird ImapMail folders and similar locations where data is already stored on a server elsewhere. Incrementals went from 160 GB each night down to about 30 GB each night after making the change.
    • Investigated using synthetic full backups for Cygnus with Bacula (VirtualFull), but abandoned because of Bacula's tape based nature: it requires too many 'hacks'. Looking at alternatives such as Veeam or only doing a full backup at end of term (rather than monthly) due to performance issues. Will also look at Veeam as a possible means to back up virtual infrastructure, replacing Bacula.
    • Cygnus -> Cygnus2 DFS failed for Artshome. Database was corrupted. Renhome, Renprofile, Artsprofile working fine but the Jet database cannot handle the large number of files on Artshome. Will investigate resuming DFS for Artshome after moving file share to Cygnus2 and adding memory to Cygnus.
    • Converted Megan Scarborough to a standalone account on her iMac because her backups were consuming 700GB on Cygnus. Logins and logouts take a long time when remote home folders contain a lot of data. Will back up the workstation with Crashplan instead. Crashplan and local accounts are a better combination for most Mac users than synchronizing files to network drives.
    • Crashplan installers for Mac moved to vanilla versions; have to enter a registration key. It looks like the custom installer was causing the issues with 'unable to connect to database engine' for some users.
    • dkennedy-fr13 SCCM and Windows update issues: he had not been getting updates since October. Ended up re-imaging to fix, then got SCCM to install and run updates.
    • Moved arts@uwaterloo.ca from Mailservices to a Connect shared mailbox.
    • Firefox, Silverlight, Flash, Adobe Reader/Pro, Chrome, Office 2011 have been updated for Macs.
    • Imported the older solitary2solidarity external Wordpress site to a local one for archive. The live site is in the WCMS.
    • clef.uwaterloo.ca Wordpress site set up for aferrer and ashleyrosekelly.com for arkelly.
  • Nevil
    • SWORDC SPSS license update is pending receipt of license codes from Lori. Deep Freeze issues being looked at. Statistics Canada data permission changes require manual changes for ~40 years of data: we looking for a way to automate the changes.
    • Attending IST's SCCM Imaging training with Scott.
    • Looking at SCCM imaging as a possibility for new Finance Lab. Contacted Robyn Landers regarding the Accounting lab in Math to get information on how that 30 seat lab is set up.
    • ASAC is looking for new initiatives for this year. Please share with Nevil any ideas for staff training and development seminars, social events, work exchange, etc.
  • Scott
    • Monitor replaced in AL for thin client.
    • Removed Economics grad printer that has failed. They were asking for a replacement.
    • Psychology requested Python 2.7 and Pygame to be packaged. The software seemed to have been removed between terms. We are making best effort work to provide new packages, noting this request falls outside the expected six week turnaround for new software requests.
    • Attending SCCM training for remote imaging with Nevil.
    • End of term system wiping was carried out in December. Madeline and Scott reimaged five laptops and four desktop systems in the last three days of the year.
    • Surplus room: please do not drop anything off in the surplus room without telling the coops so they are aware and can leave a note on odd items. No items from home: anything that is not a UW-owned asset can go to eWaste at the Waterloo landfill site or other pickup locations in the region.
    • Some Google Chrome updates didn't go through properly. Using the "Client Center for Configuration Manager" to install on specific systems worked.
    • K-Lite Codec package failed on a couple of systems because the system required a reboot before the application would install.
    • First set of Microsoft patches was delivered to Arts Vanguard via SCCM this week.
  • Jameson
    • Working on Powershell command and incorporating all security group changes into one report. Also adding in reporting for all the Colleges and Psychology. Working on getting script working with changes.
    • Handled three computer moves in AUO in the end of December.
    • Upgraded memory in all ECON Sessional machines in HH. Each machine now has 4GB.
    • Working on troubleshooting some issues with Sherry's computer. She can now see Images in Outlook, but cannot Printing in Colour despite reinstalling driver and has a monitor that periodically goes to sleep.
    • Ongoing work on cleaning up old Nexus computers from the domain.
    • Swapped out some older computers in Speech Communications with newer sessional computers.
  • Lisa
    • WCMS work/orientation with Javairia.
    • Planning for a February 24 SharePoint course for faculty and grad students based on an expression of interest.
    • Please send lunch session topic ideas to Lisa and/or Jaivaria.
    • Processes to document this term: creating a new Wordpress site., handling web site requests, security incident response
  • Todd
    • ML 117 25' VGA video cable failed. Put a spare in place. Continuing equipment maintenance (e.g. keyboard batteries). An instructor noted an electrical receptacle on the wall is not working. Received Mac convertor dongle to allow lecturers to connect to the projectors using HDMI.
    • ML 109 ad hoc bookings for PSYCH 394 and FR 250A this term. Met with FR instructor in December about general resources.
    • Altay Coskun (Classical) requested pickup of computer from his office, possibly for sending to surplus.
  • Colin
    • Have initial list of software for new Financial Resource and Learning Lab. Following up with instructors to find out what software is needed.